Congress can end the college hunger crisis (opinion)

A college student may not be the face Americans picture when they think about hunger, but food insecurity has long been an alarming crisis in higher education. Nationally, nearly one in four undergraduate students, and one in eight graduate students, report low or very low food security, based on federal definitions. College hunger forces students to choose whether to pay for food or rent, take on higher and higher amounts of debt, or drop out of college altogether.

Despite differences in geography, local context and governance, as leaders of the largest university systems in the country, serving more than 800,000 students combined, we share a responsibility to identify and address the primary challenges facing our students, faculty, staff and the communities around them. And time and time again, we hear the heartbreaking reality that students are consistently struggling to afford healthy meals and sometimes go without food entirely.

At some of our colleges, well over half of enrolled students routinely report not having enough to eat. It is morally unacceptable that our students’ hunger for knowledge is derailed by hunger in their bellies. Basic needs insecurity prevents us from cultivating the talent, skills and innovation we need to build a competitive and inclusive economy. We cannot ask students to fully engage in their coursework, study time and extracurricular activities on empty stomachs. Studies show what common sense suggests: food-insecure students struggle to maintain their grade point averages, report higher levels of mental health challenges and have higher dropout rates than their peers.

In both the California State University and State University of New York systems, we’re prioritizing student basic needs and reducing campus hunger. Our efforts include surveying our campuses to better understand students’ challenges and working with our college presidents to ensure that every student is screened for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, our country’s largest and most successful anti-hunger effort. Many of our colleges are collaborating with local nonprofits to help connect eligible students with benefit programs.

At SUNY, we’ve dedicated annual funding—for the first time ever—to support food pantries at our 64 campuses and have required that they conduct outreach to all students who are eligible for SNAP. And at CSU’s 23 campuses, we have dedicated staff focused on educating eligible students about and supporting their access to California’s SNAP program, CalFresh. Further, the Center for Healthy Communities at California State University, Chico, partners with all 149 public colleges and universities in the state to increase awareness of these benefits. When we tour our campuses, we’re amazed at the extraordinary humanity and genuine care demonstrated by those who staff our campus food pantries, connect students with resources and help our students get the financial support they need to succeed.

Too often, though, we find ourselves swimming upstream in this effort. The current eligibility rules for students to get SNAP benefits are disheartening examples of governmental red tape. Our low-income students must meet the same income, citizenship and other rules as any other household to get SNAP benefits, but federal rules require them to meet additional burdensome requirements, such as working at least 20 hours a week, or participating in a federal or state work-study program, just to prove they’re hungry enough for help. Some low-income students can qualify through other avenues, but only if they can navigate their way into one of about a dozen restrictive categories— e.g., if they have dependent children of a certain age—again, on top of the hoops other applicants must jump through.

The hurdles are so high that the U.S. Government Accountability Office, in a report issued in June, found that 67 percent of low-income students who are potentially eligible for SNAP reported that their household did not receive any SNAP benefits. In other words, only one in three students who meet the stringent eligibility requirements are receiving any help. Compared to all other types of U.S. households, these rates are shockingly low: Among nonstudent populations, the uptake rate is a more reasonable 82 percent. Despite herculean efforts by our campus leaders and attention from state lawmakers, a recent California analysis found that about one in five students in the state were even eligible for SNAP, and of those, fewer than one in three were able to enroll—leaving a massive gap of hungry students without any help from the nation’s flagship anti-hunger program.

Today’s SNAP rules, long overdue for a refresh, are based on faulty assumptions about who our students are. Fortunately, lawmakers in Congress are working to reauthorize the Farm Bill, which sets the rules for our nation’s nutrition and agriculture programs. First and foremost, we need our delegations to stand firm against any proposed cuts to the SNAP program, which would sharply reduce the ability of millions of families—including students—to put food on the table.

But we should also elevate several proposals under consideration that would simplify student eligibility for food assistance. Leaders from both our states, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Representative Jimmy Gomez of California, have introduced a bill known as the Enhance Access to SNAP, or EATS, Act, which would remove the complicated rules that target and exclude our students from SNAP. The bill would eliminate the obstacles so many low-income students must clear to get help paying for groceries, even when they don’t have any family support of their own to rely on.

We’ve had the political will to tackle this challenge before. During the pandemic, Congress passed bipartisan legislation to streamline student eligibility for SNAP and remove the harmful work requirements for students with the lowest incomes. But like so many other pandemic efforts to rescue our economy from the brink, these successful fixes were temporary. Now, our students once again face unnecessary barriers at a time when they need more help, not less.

Solving the challenge of food insecurity is the right thing, but it’s also the beneficial thing to do—for our colleges and for our economy. Studies show that SNAP enrollment is associated with a boost in retention and graduation rates. Addressing food insecurity makes college more accessible and affordable, and it also gives students a pathway to reach graduation, enter the workforce and attain financial security, making them less likely to need public assistance in the future.

Reform can’t wait. Congress should incorporate the EATS Act into the Farm Bill or significantly streamline the SNAP student rules as soon as possible. We cannot expect students to focus on their educations and achieve their dreams if they are constantly concerned about where their next meal will come from. If we truly believe in higher education as an engine of upward mobility, we must prove it by addressing the basic needs that hold too many of our students back.